Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1887-11-01
WAR RECORDS OFFICE.
WHERE THE WRITERS OF WAR ARTk
Giles GO FOR INSPIRATION.

How the Records Are Obtained. How
They Are Kept, and the Use That L.
Nade OF Them-History In False
Light.
The place where ~war "reminiscences arc
made is here in Washington. It b little
square graystoDe building on G street. Any
sort of war "Reminiscences that Is wanted can
be had their on very short notice. The war
articles that appear in such numbers in popu-
lar magazines and newspapers, written by
great generals and privates with wonderful
recollections, come in part or in full from
this place. II a general of either army is
called upon by The Century, or some other
popular periodical, to write his recollections
of the war. he repairs at once to this place to
gather up his recollections. 1t is a sort Of
magic cell which awakens tagging memory
and corrects popular fallacies. Gen. Wal
lace, Gen. Beauregard, Col. Allen. Gen.
Corse, Gen Smith and Gen Sherman all go
there to put on their thinking caps; Or, when
they do not 60 in person, they write for in
formation. This great weakener of recollec-
tons is the war records Office. The amount of
information they have collected is almost in
conceivable. Many old war veterans go
there and search out the old documents before
writing the history Of what they saw. 1t is
astonishing how often they are forced by the
cold, dried and well preserved facts to discard
pet notions about how things were, ana are
obliged to revise their impressions about
things with which they had thought them
selves entirely familiar.
Frequently officers Of the two opposing
armies, who have led the charge against each
others forces, have met here for the first time
to know each other Each looking at the
battle or the maneuver from a different stand
point, they come to look over the records to
see how it really was. There is no chance for
any quarrel about it, There is no room for
any exaggeration. The records are right at
hand to sustain the truth or to brand fallacy.
Generally, both men find that their impress
sions were not quite right. Facts make friends:
so they soon become cordial There have
been some remarkable meetings here of men
who have fought hard face to face, but never
met before. All who have met this way have
become friends. They sit and talk the whole
thing over, correct each others errors of
memory, or are both set right by the record.
Sherman, Sheridan, Beauregard, Hunt Wal
lace. Long and the younger Lees have met
there. Sherman has drawn largely upon
these records in some of his writings Gen.
Grant, while writing his book, was in con-
stant communication with Gen Marcus j.
Wright, who does the work of collecting the
Confederate records A large amount Of the
matter in the book was got in this way. He
also furnished information to the office and
jeff Davis has drawn upon this source for in
formation for use in his book Gen Wright
has in his possession letter book filled with
nothing but letters from Grant and Davis
upon the same subjects.
Strange to say, jeff Davis was among the
very first to respond to the call Of the govern
ment for official papers Of the Confederacy.
He sent all his papers cbeerfuly as soon as
he received the request When the work of
collecting the records was first begun. it was
thought that they would never be able to get
enough of the Confederate papers to make
the record complete; but for nine years now
Gen. Wright has been writing to the surviv-
ing Confederate officers, Or the families of
officers who We're killed, and he has succeeded
in collecting fully as complete record Of the
Confederate army as is had of the Federal.
All letters or orders written by officials or
officers of the army during the war that re-
late at all to the subject Of the war are col
lected and compiled and printed without edit
ing When the work is all done there will
have to be another history of the war written
from these records Many things that have
been accepted as truths will be proved by
these records to be absolutely false. They
will show that officers on both sides have
been overestimated and that other officers
have never got the credit that was due them.
There is a sort OF halo Of romance sur
rounding all the battles that puts history in a
false light Officers i'll writing reports Of
battles, under the excitement of the time.
have often fallen into the error of exagger-
ating the enemyis forces. One very popular
error which has been corrected by these
records is with relation to the first battle OF
Bull Run. 1t has always been believed that
the FEDERAL forces on that occasion greatly
outn bered the Confederates. 1t has gone
into history so. In the north, as well as in
the south, it has been accepted as fact not
to be disputed, and the northern people have
always felt little shsme that their large
army should have been defeated by so much
smaller force of Confederates. These records
bring to light the fact that there was not q
difference Of 1000 men between the strength
of the two armies, and of those actually en-.
gagged in the battle, the Confederates had
within 500 of as many men as the Federals
There are number of other cases where the
odds of battle have been accepted as very
heavy when such was not the case, and there
are the expositions Of plans and purposes
that throw an entirely new light on the his
tory Washington Star.